Because of the nature of Mr. Big operations, concerns arise as to the reliability of the confessions they produce.
Well, that s putting it mildly.
Supreme Court of Canada Justice Michael Moldaver used supreme caution when he wrote the line into a 118-page decision, released Thursday, on the long, sad case of accused murderer Nelson Hart.
Mr. Hart was convicted in 2007 of killing his twin three-year-old daughters in Newfoundland. The Newfoundland Court of Appeal later agreed that his rights had been violated and that the lengths to which undercover RCMP officers went to extract from him three murder confessions were excessive and unjust. The case then went to Canada s highest court, which found in Mr. Hart s favour.
This was not the usual undercover investigation where police join an existing criminal organization in order to witness criminals in action, noted Mme. Justice Andromache Karakatsanis, in her own reasons written into Thursday s court decision. This case is more akin to entrapment.
The Supreme Court found in the Hart sting operation examples of egregious RCMP conduct. For example, undercover police exposed their target to physical and psychological harm. The court considered other disturbing police behaviours as well. And it used the opportunity to take an in-depth look at Mr. Big confessions and the principles that should govern their admissibility, according to Mr. Justice Moldaver.
At present, he added, these operations are conducted in a legal vacuum.
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What took the high court so long to carefully examine Mr. Big undercover techniques? That s anyone s guess. While it did identify the most serious risks to fair trials and Charter rights violations inherent to Mr. Big operations, the court did not, unfortunately, take the logical next step. It did not ban Mr. Big, full stop.
Instead, the court suggested that when relying on Mr. Big operations henceforth, police and Crown prosecutors use more restraint. Fat chance of that. (Mr. Moldaver added that the Crown should presume a Mr. Big confession is inadmissible until it can establish, on a balance of probabilities, that the probative value of the confession outweighs its prejudicial effect. Mme. Justice Karakatsanis disagreed with that approach.)
Mr. Big stings were invented by the RCMP in B.C. two decades ago. They ve been used hundreds of times since, in B.C. and in other provinces. Police typically deploy the undercover strategy when they have identified a strong murder suspect, but can t collect enough evidence under normal investigative processes to lay or recommend a charge.
Typically, the suspect is approached by undercover officers posing as gang members and encouraged to peripherally engage in what he s made to think are small crimes. For his efforts, he s paid in cash; in Mr. Hart s case, more than $15,720 over many months. Police spent $413,268 on the Hart operation in total.
The target is usually offered a taste of the high life: Fancy hotels, restaurants, strip clubs. Alcohol is routinely provided to Mr. Big targets, sometimes in copious amounts. Undercover RCMP officers have been known to drink and drive in order to maintain their gangster covers.
The target watches as his clingy new associates threaten and even administer severe beatings to others; these are actually staged encounters. The blood that flies is fake. The target is warned to never betray his new organization, or else.
Undercover officers provide their targets with inducements, including cash rewards, to encourage them to confess
He is eventually pushed to confess his unsolved crime to the boss,Oakley Jupiter, the so-called Mr. Big. If he does, the confession is used to convict him in court. So it went down with Mr. Hart. And if the target doesn t confess? That almost never happens.
Mr. Big operations run the risk of becoming abusive, noted Mr. Justice Moldaver. Undercover officers provide their targets with inducements, including cash rewards,Oakley Glasses Sale, to encourage them to confess. They also cultivate an aura of violence by showing that those who betray the [fictitious] criminal organization are met with violence.
So: Cash rewards for confessions. Police pretending to be violent thugs, capable of beating the living daylights out of anyone who  stands up to them.
Despite all of the red flags and potential for trouble identified — the significant risk of false confessions being the worst — Mr. Big operations will continue to be tolerated and used in this country. Why? Here s the Supreme Court s bottom line: The technique works.
Of course it does. It relies on coercion, inducements and threats. As such,Oakley Sunglasses Outlet, it should be stopped.
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